Earlier today we reported that Microsoft had acquired "certain assets" from Creature House Ltd., a company that develops illustration and animation software for Macintosh and Windows systems. These include Expression, a vector illustration application, and LivingCels, an animation that had just reached the public preview stage when the acquisition was apparently finalized.
Since the time of our initial report, a Microsoft spokesperson responded with a brief statement regarding the acquisition. "Microsoft posted a public notice in September 2003 that was in the final stages of an acquisition of Creature House, a small software company based in Hong Kong. Creature House is a privately held company and the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed." Though Microsoft said it previously posted a public notice about the deal, the acquisition became apparent only recently when a new Microsoft copyright notice appeared on Creature House"s Web site, along with the following statement: "Microsoft has completed the purchase of certain Creature House assets. Please continue to check back at this website for further information regarding availability of the Expression and LivingCels products."